Ever heard of the Alachua County Library District's Heritage Collection? No?! The Heritage Collection consists of over 1,100 historical photographs from all aspects of daily life in the Alachua County area. Treat yourself to a journey of amazing historical detail and profound human interest through this annotated photographic exposé of the Alachua region spanning the 1870s through the 1970s. Experience and understand local history in a different way, through the faces and places of the past that still influence the present.
School is almost out for the summer and there are lots of excited seniors waiting for graduation. Alachua County high schools have their graduation ceremonies at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center or the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Florida campus. Now is a time to look fondly back at all those years of learning and the classmates you befriended along the way. In the Heritage Collection we have many class pictures and photos of graduating seniors. Look to see if you can find someone you know.
Learn more about the histories of these schools: Gainesville High School, Lincoln Middle School (formerly Lincoln High School), A. Quinn Jones Center (also formerly Lincoln High School), Union Academy, Parker Elementary School (formerly J. J. Finley School), Shell Elementary School, High Springs High School and Kirby Smith School (formerly the Gainesville Graded and High School and now the Alachua County Public School District Office). More school history can be found in these books and at the Matheson Historical Museum.